Theatre for New Voices

Author Archives

Thank you to everyone who came out and supported HERSTORY last weekend. You all help make this work possible. We had a full house on Friday night and a sold out show for Saturday! We can’t wait to celebrate more amazing women and female artists over the rest of 2019!

Kendra Augustin discusses her new play The Astonishing and The Lily, premiering this weekend as part of HERSTORY 3 at the Institute Library. Interview by Natalie Osborne.

Q: What drew you to Christina the Astonishing and Saint Dymphna?

A: One of the playwrights was writing about nuns and it made me want to write about nuns, but somehow researching nuns led me to researching saints and I found Christina the Astonishing. Her story sounded insane and unreal, but it turns out, she, like Jesus, are real people whether or not people believe in the events that happened to/around/because of them. Saint Dymphna was by accident. I told my friend about Christina, but she said Dymphna was the patron saint of mental illness and she would know because Dymphna was her patron saint. But, the end of December came along and I didn’t know what angle I wanted to take with Christina, and I was having a holiday lunch with two fellow artists, one also a 365 writer, and she made a joke about Dymphna and Christina fighting about their title and that’s how the play came to be.

Q: In the play and in real life, Christina was the one who lived with the stigma of mental illness, but it was Saint Dymphna who was recognized by the Church, can you talk more about the importance of this?

A: The importance of this is that Dymphna is the one that is recognized. Like when I said my friend corrected me that Dymphna was the rightful patron saint that meant that when Catholics give their children saints to protect them they’re likely not doing it with Christina. They probably don’t know Christina which reduces her to a fairy tale/forgotten character in history.

Q: What do you think writers can do to challenge the stigmatism around mental illness that exist in our society today?

A: I notice a lot of stories are about how hard it is to deal with people/be related to people who have a mental illness, so I think when writers write about what living with mental illness means that can help destigmatize. And I know in the theatre we like DRAMA but sometimes you can be “normal” but still be depressed. If we show mental illness, not as just this thing that is so obvious and over the top SO ALL THE WORLD CAN SEE, but something that’s almost like the beating heart in The Tell-Tale heart then maybe audiences will get it. For example, if we can stop showing OCD as people who are just germaphobes that can help. Because it’s much darker and borderline psychosis! Or show that not all depressed people are not just walking black clouds. Then people will stop saying, “oh, but she seemed so happy.” after someone ends their life. Maybe it’ll inspire people to check up on their friends who make too many jokes about suicide, or seem too pessimistic, or seem too isolated. I like to think mental illness is like cancer in that you can be in remission and then it can come back. And then it can go. And come back.

Q: Can you talk more about your relationship to Catholicism (or religion in general) and how that shaped your approach to this play?

A: I guess you can say I’m Catholic if you believe that we inherit the religions our parents also inherited. But, I don’t consider myself Catholic. But, I did get into church (of the Protestant variety) at 16 because I wanted to go to summer camp (and I wanted friends). And that want allowed me to have friends, to have a social life, to learn social skills, and I went to church like 6 days a week because it was where my “family” was! But, anyway I think being culturally shaped by Catholicism, joining the Protestants for a few years, and living with Seventh-day Adventists my first few years in NYC shaped my approach to this play because when I was peak “mentally unwell” I went back to religion and did not feel better. It’s commonly known that it’s tough, if you have some sort of mental health issue, to be around religious people because you’ll be told to pray or to seek God, or whatever and if you don’t feel better then you end up feeling worse and slipping further into mental unwellness. So, I think that’s what inspired the debate between Dymphna and Christina about what it means to go through mental illness and what it means to heal people who are suffering from mental illness. Another thing that inspired me is that that sometimes, I think mental illness is a good thing that is treated like a bad thing because other people (what some call “neurotypical” ) aren’t as in tune with what “mentally unwell” people are in tune with so they seek to fix them. I mean people do drugs to trip and some of us trip just by being alive.

Q: One part of your play that I found the most thought-provoking and challenging was the conflict between spirituality and religion, can you speak more about this?

A: Don’t get me wrong, Christina is recognized, she has a memorial day, people pray to her, but the Catholic church has not officially approved her and I think it is because she’s a bit more scandalous. Dymphna is lauded for her virtue (she died at 15 though) whereas Christina probably sounded like a nut because she talked about speaking to God, and was horrified by human flesh when she returned from her death and lived a life of no possession legend tells. People, even now, think you’re nutty if you do that. Because it’s that thing about being different from what’s perceived as normal or good. Dymphna lived scandal-free, but again she died at 15! Christina lived till she was 77. It’s like how we learn about Rosa Parks, and not Claudette Colvin because Rosa had the cleaner image. I learned about Claudette, by a random woman on the street while leaving the public library. And of course I thought she was a nut, but she was just telling me a story I hadn’t been told and I think that’s Christina’s thing.

But back to religion and spirituality. I know many Christians who will say I don’t have a religion I have a relationship with Christ. Religion is the rule and relationship is the thing that saves you. If you do believe in heaven and if it is true, your relationship with God is gonna save you and not you attending Church to look good. Somewhere in the Christian bible, God says that there will be people who think they’ll get into heaven, but I’ll say to them I don’t even know you.” Of course, it’s written in a classier way than I wrote it here!

But, I’m glad you asked this question. Dymphna is akin to the model Christian. The reason many people fear going to church is that they think it’s a place for perfect people. But the motto is always: “church is a hospital for sinners.” But, then Christina is the person who actually knows God, but she’s not perfect. She’s “strange” but she has that personal relationship. I like to think of the people on the streets who look homeless, and start speaking about God are actually in tune, and maybe we’re the crazy ones!

Q: Where would you like to see The Astonishing and The Lily go after HERSTORY?

A: Churches and colleges because why not!

Q: Are you working on any plays for 365 Women a Year 2018?

A: Yes, this year I claimed Fredi Washington (Peola in Imitation of Life) a Harlem Renaissance era film actress who could have passed for white, but chose not to and that made her career tough!

I also chose Virginia Woolf because this year we can choose women who have already been written about, and I wanted to choose between her and Sylvia Plath the first year, but she was already taken. I know nothing about her really, but I’m excited to learn more about her. I am unfortunately a sucker for female creatives who ended their lives.

I was gonna add Viola Spolin to the list, but I can’t handle that much writing in one year. But, maybe in the next five years, I’ll write about the woman whose book was my textbook for improv in college. Since I am involved in the comedy scene I see Del Close is considered the improv master, but they don’t know about Ms. Spolin except maybe those who took improv in college?

Q: What advice do you have for writers who are writing for 365 Women a Year for the first time?

A: Jess is cool because she doesn’t need it to be the perfect format, she just needs you to write. I say do that. Even if it’s 3 pages, even it’s 320 pages just do it and then also submit it on time. I remember when I was writing about Sylvia I had to stop because I…uh… wasn’t doing so well, but I made it my mission to finish that play by December 31st and by, George, I did it!

Come see Kendra’s play, and the other plays in our festival, Friday and Saturday evening at 7pm. Reserve your tickets ahead of time here.

LADIES FIRST is a list of new productions, workshops, readings, and publications by female playwrights. Our goal is to create greater gender parity in theatre by highlighting the works of female writers and the organizations that promote and produce their works.

HERSTORY will take place at the Institute Library in New Haven, CT, March 9th and 10th at 7pm. Plays include We-Remember written by Amy Oestricher and directed by Ingrid Oslund, Frida Kahlo: Heartbreaker written by Lylanne Musselman and directed by Teresa Langston, The Astonishing and the Lily written by Kendra Augustin and directed by Keith Paul, and The Legend of Sigridur Tomasdottir written by Natalie Osborne and directed by Moira Malone. There will be a raffle with gift cards to local business and other fabulous prizes. Refreshments will be served free of charge. There is a $10 suggested donation for entry. Tickets are available at the door or at https://institutelibrary.z2systems.com/np/clients/institutelibrary/event.jsp?event=1203

We hope to see you there!

Fantastic.Z’s 6th Annual New Works Festival: Femme

March 8th through March 11th in Seattle

featuring
MISS EDUCATION by Charlie Cook
WHO SHE COULD HAVE BEEN by Allie Costa
TINY MOMENTS IN BETWEEN by Sarah Haas
THE WAY BACK by Rebecca K. Hsia
PERFORMANCE REVIEW by Nedra Pezold Roberts
I’M LOVIN’ IT by Jessi Pitts

* Fantastic.Z’s B-SIDES Matinee Saturday March 10th at 2 PM is a pay what you can at the door event.*

INK Fest in Los Angeles

March 9th through March 11th

2Cents Theatre Group’s popular 3-day festival of female playwrights is back for year five and we’re gearing up for the most exciting INK yet!

featuring

34B by Rosemary Frisino Toohey
All We Know is Not Enough by Darcy Parker Bruce
Ava Maria by Anne Flanagan
Dalton by Dagney Kerr
Extra, Extra! by Iona Cruey Holder
Follow Through by Jaime Becker
I Can Speak: the Does by Juanita Chase de Lamont
If I Fell by Laura Stribling
Jim Reaper by Tracey Jane Smith
Little Swan a pas de deux by Allie Costa
Mirror, Mirror by Laura King
Phoenix by Penny Jackson
The Baby Shower by Stevie Stern
The Dreamy One by Brittny Roberts
The Ethel Party by Lolly Ward
The Misfit Mantra by Amy Dellagiarino
The Porch Swing by Alli Miller
This Almost Joy by Barbara Lindsay
Thunder by Wendy Gough Soroka
We Will Not Describe the Conversation by Eugenie Carabatsos
Woman on the Bridge by Julia Pascal
Young Savages by Skyler Barrett

Celebration | Tuesday, March 20, 6 – 8 PM
• Songs and monologues by established and up-and-coming writers performed by actors including Tovah Feldshuh, the writers themselves, and more

Day Two: Jewish Women in the Holocaust and Its Aftermath | Wednesday, March 21, 10 AM – 6 PM
• Excerpts and full-length readings about well-known women such as Hannah Arendt, Hannah Senesh, Edith Stein, as well as unnamed women of that time
• Lilith Salon: The Damage of the Holocaust—The Discussed and Undiscussed Toil (moderated by Lilith Magazine staff)

In Mathilde Dratwa’s Milk and Gall, Vera gives birth to a shape-shifting baby on election night, and attempts to navigate the chaos of that first year as a new mom amid political turmoil.

And in Susan Hansell’s An Ocean of Bees, four characters represent the human species in a post-apocalyptic future. How will they find their humanity?

There’s some exciting stuff here – both in the scripts themselves and in looking at the way they support our mission. What happens when the parameters of ‘the test’ are blurred? We’d love you to be part of the conversation.

To submit to the April issue of LADIES FIRST, email natalie.noplays@gmail.com before the end of the month. Send us your name, the name of your play, the name of the theatre producing your work, a sentence or two about the play, the where and when, and an image. Thank you to everyone who participated in this month’s LADIES FIRST newsletter.

Amy Oestreicher discusses her new play WE RE-MEMBER, part of HERSTORY 3: JOURNEY WOMEN, a festival of new work by emerging female writers. Interview by Natalie Osborne.

Q: How long have you been with 365 Women a Year?

A: I have been with 365 for one year – It’s my first time being involved with such an amazing group of women, and it’s been so wonderful to be a part of this community and see these stories come to light!

Q: Can you tell us more about the inspiration behind We Re-Member?

It definitely started with my Grandma, who was an amazing seamstress. I knew that as a child, because of the beautiful coats and garments she’d make us for temple. Later I learned that she was also a holocaust survivor from Czechoslovakia, which explained her accent. Even later I learned she had survived the death camps of Auschwitz through her sewing, which put her fabrics and garments in a different light. When my grandma passed, I wanted to know more about her story and remember her.

These two sisters in We Re-Member are conflicted, asking the question: how do we wear our past?

Jessie and Sam are sisters who discover boxes left by their grandmother, a Holocaust survivor who immigrated to the Lower East Side after the war, and with her husband, started one of the most successful sewing corporations in the Garment District. Sam, the older sister striving for uniqueness, and Jessie, the younger sibling longing for memory, are drawn towards piecing the fabric together in conflicting ways that threaten to tear them apart.

My grandparents, HANNAH and IRVING STOCHEL, after arriving on the Lower East Side by ship after the holocaust, founded the MYRA Corporation, one of the most successful sewing corporations on the Lower East Side. I’m doing a TEDx talk on their story in April!!!

Q: What were some of the challenges you faced while writing this play?

A: I knew I wanted to honor my grandma but I wasn’t sure how to do that. Little did I know that these sisters’ disagreement of whether to preserve the fabrics as they are, or deconstruct them in order to reassemble them differently, a conflict of philosophies, was really a battle I was going through myself – What will allow their grandparents’ memories to flourish? Is a legacy more valuable once it’s broken apart and repurposed, or kept as is? How do we re-member the pieces of our lives and honor those who came before us? So I battled with how to get all this down to 10 minutes!!!

Q: In the title of the piece, you describe We Re-Member as a “10-page Forget-Me-Not Play,” can you tell us more about that?

A: The play is about the struggle to preserve, to not forget. I think the lesson is that there is no wrong way to remember, as long as it is in our hearts.

Q: You’re also a performer and a visual artist, how does your work in other media influence your writing and vise-versa?

A: Extremely visually! Especially because I discovered art as a way of healing and expressing what I couldn’t capture through words – I’m actually working on a new piece which incorporates live painting on Stage – eventually, I want to expand on this play, and have the two sisters, who first fight over the best way to put their grandmothers memory together, in order for it to live on, in an actual quilt or tapestry.

I always consider myself foremost a performer, because that’s what I grew up living and loving – musical theatre! As a playwright, it definitely has helped give me perspective on conveying emotions, conflicts and dynamics onstage. I still perform Gutless and Grateful, my one woman musical, all over the country, and writing that was really my first experience performing my own work!

Q: In the play the Grandmother is an immigrant, and a Holocaust survivor. Why do you think stories like this are important based on what’s happening in our country right now?

A: Because we have to remember, in all of this political tumult and conflict, that these stories we hear about in the news, of families being torn apart, these are really people, sons, daughters, wives that experience heartbreak and loss like every one of us. The breaking apart of families, the loss of loved ones, is something that we can’t continue to happen unnaturally.

My grandparents, came here and started a successful sewing corporation as immigrants. They contributed to society passionately, wholeheartedly, and were an inspiration to all they knew. I think it’s important to honor this, with the debates on Immigration in our country right now.

Q: What would you like the audience to walk away with after watching your play?

A: I want them to think about a relative, or someone, something they’ve lost in their own life, and make a decision that’s best for them – because there’s no right way to connect and honor a legacy. There’s not one way to pass on a story. It’s however we feel that we can bring their stories to light. There are many ways to sew, to re-stitch and re-member.

Q: Are there any thoughts or pieces of advice you’d like to give to your fellow writers or the theatre community at large?

A: Find what your passionate about and just start writing – from anywhere – later but figure out what speaks to you right now. Don’t think about what you should be writing. Honesty is what makes art. Or at least it’s the building blocks!

You can see We Re-Member during the HERSTORY Festival, March 9th and 10th at the Institute Library in New Haven. You can reserve your tickets ahead of time here. Tickets will also be available at the door for a $10 suggested donation. If you would like to support HERSTORY by making a small donation, click here or visit our Cafepress Store.

Lylanne Musselman discusses her new play Frida Khalo: Heartbreaker, part of the HERSTORY 3: JOURNEY WOMEN. Interview by Natalie Osborne.

Q: Can you tell us more about your experience writing for 365 Women a Year?

A: I’ve been on-board from the beginning. Jess Eisenberg is doing a great thing where women are concerned with this project to get women, well-known and obscure, on stage. I’ve met a few of the other playwrights from the project, and I was even Festival Director for the 365 Women a Year Festival in Detroit in 2016. I can’t say enough good things about 365 Women a Year!

Q: What drew you to Frida Khalo?

A: Well, I’m a visual artist too and I’ve always loved Khalo’s work – she’s so colorful! I especially love her “Self-portrait with Cropped Hair.” I was so happy to write a play featuring her for the 365 Women a Year project…I was afraid someone else would request her before I did!

Q: What was a major challenge you had to overcome while writing this play?

A: I really didn’t want Frida to come off as shallow. I also wanted to give the play humor, but not make fun of the situation at hand. I feel that I still gave Frida respect, and I feel that there are some humorous moments without being “mean.” I also didn’t want it to be a takeoff of the movie about her life either…so I wanted to focus on other aspects than were highlighted there.

Q: Your play focuses on a side of Frida Khalo most people are unaware of, what lead you down this path?

A: As a lesbian, that didn’t come out until later in life, I was fascinated when I found out that Khalo had dalliances with women, even though she was always “with” Diego. I felt that writing this play would allow others to see that she had that side to her as well.

Q: People seem almost as fascinated by Frida Khalo’s personal life as they are by her artwork, if not more so, why do you think that is?

A: As I said, her art is “colorful” and I think we could say her life was pretty “colorful” as well. She certainly lived her life, had a forceful personality, gave Diego as good as he sent, she was politically active at a time women weren’t known to be, and then she had such pain from the bus accident…so I think there’s a lot there for all types of people to be fascinated by!

Q: During her life, Frida Khalo’s work was overshadowed by her husband Diego, do you see this as a problem women creators still face today?

A: Yes, she certainly was overshadowed by Diego, wasn’t she! Yes, I feel that many women still take a backseat to their partners/husbands today. And, unfortunately, being creative isn’t always seen as an integral part of our society…so if you’re a woman, and you’re creative, you’ve got two hills to climb already, then if you have a man who is not supportive…or is also in the arts, as Diego was, there’s another obstacle! I do hope that with the women’s movement picking back up again, that this will all even out for all of us.

Q: What are you hoping audience members will be left with after seeing your play?

A: I hope it makes them think that people are attracted to who they’re attracted to…we shouldn’t be so quick to judge and put people in a box. By the same token, I feel that the play shows that if you love someone…they do have a hold over you…for better…or worse.

Q: What’s next for you? What are you working on now?

A: I’m working on more plays for 365 Women a Year! The immediate play I’m working on is a play about another woman artist, Francoise Gilot. I find her fascinating because she’s in her 90s now, and she still paints! In addition, she had an affair with Picasso for 10 years and is the mother of two of his children. She also was married to Jonas Salk until he died in 1995…so I feel like she’s got a lot of interesting twists that I can write a play about! I’m also going to write a play about the poet Ruth Stone after I finish this one. Additionally, I’m always writing poems and painting!

Q: Is there anything else you would like to share with us?

A: I have a full-length collection of poetry coming out this spring, It’s Not Love, Unfortunately, which will be published by Chatter House Press. I’d also like to express my appreciation for being a part of HERSTORY 3! I’m so honored, and especially happy that it is with my Frida Kahlo play. Thank you!

You can see Frida Khalo: Heartbreaker, March 9th and 10th at the Institute Library in New Haven. You can reserve your tickets ahead of time here. Tickets will also be available at the door for a $10 suggested donation. If you would like to support HERSTORY by making a small donation, click here or visit our Cafepress Store.